Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Monday night's events in Coronation Street netted an average of thirteen million viewers, overnight figures suggest. The evening's second episode of the soap featured an explosion and a tram crash and left the fate of many characters uncertain. Last week's episode, which was broadcast in the same time slot, attracted an average audience of 9.6m. The storyline was created to celebrate the soap's fiftieth anniversary later this week. The earlier episode, which started at 7:30 attracted an average audience of 11.6 million viewers. Critics were largely positive about the episodes, with the Gruniad Morning Star's Grace Dent calling the tram crash 'vivid and terrifying, arriving at the worst possible moment.' Metro said: 'Terribly formulaic yes, but it was a winning formula all the same. As the brutal chops between scenes became more frantic and more frequent, the tension was intolerable.' After the dramatic tram crash scenes - fx courtesy of The Mill - were broadcast, an ITV News trailer featuring newsreader Alastair Stewart was shown. He announced there had been an explosion in the Manchester suburb of Weatherfield and linked to a reporter on the scene as if the drama was being played out in real-life. Several storylines reached crisis point during the two instalments of the soap. Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) found out he was not the biological father of his son, Jack, and Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) was faced with choosing between her fiance, Peter Barlow, and her lover, Nick Tilsley. Tuesday night's episode (superbly directed by Graeme Harper, incidentally) revealed two of the likely people for whom of the four funerals will be held. In addition, obviously, to poor unfortunate horribly murdered Charlotte.

Complaints about X Factor being 'fixed' have continued following conflicting tabloid reports. Simon Cowell has stepped into the dispute - caused by the introduction of a sing-off in last weekend's semi-final - assuring readers of the Sun newspaper that the show has 'done nothing wrong.' Cowell also insisted that he never knows 'the exact placings of the artists' in the phone votes until the end of the series. Speaking about the sing-off between Mary Byrne and Cher Lloyd, he added: 'There has always been a sing-off when there are five people left in the competition. This is a lot of nonsense about nothing.' However, in an interview with the Mirror, the eliminated Byrne described the ITV talent show as 'a fix. It's not the show the public think it is,' she is quoted as saying. 'I knew the public had voted for me to stay on, and I actually thought the result would be based just on their vote. It was only on Saturday I discovered that there would be a sing-off where the judges decided. It's obvious Simon didn't want me in the final and I get that. I'm not as marketable to him as Cher so he was never going to put me through. They fixed it for me to lose. It didn't matter what the public think.' Both ITV and Cowell have insisted that the introduction of a sing-off in the semi-final was made 'weeks ago.' Byrne herself has accused X Factor bosses of rigging the show to get rid of her. She claims show that chiefs knew before the sing-off that the public had voted for her but wanted the 'more marketable' Cher Lloyd to stay.

Lord Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, has reportedly joined a list of high profile candidates vying to become the next chairman of the BBC Trust. According to the Daily Torygraph, 'sources close to the recruitment process' claim that Lord Patten has applied to replace Sir Michael Lyons when he steps down in March next year. The former Conservative minister is thought to have been placed on a list of preferred candidates by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The next chairman of the BBC's governing body will need to have a corporate background, but also boast experience of the public sector and international operations. Patten fits the bill, as he is chancellor of Oxford University and acts as an advisor to petroleum giant BP (it's a pity, somewhat, that he didn't advise them to get that leak capped a bit sooner, don't you think?), telecoms firm Hutchison Europe and investment group BMB. He also sits on the advisory board of private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital. Other candidates believed to be in the frame to lead the Trust include BBC trustees Dame Patricia Hodgson and Anthony Fry, along with YouGov chairman Roger Parry and former Ofcom regulator Richard Hooper. Sony chief executive Sir Howard Stringer has been approached for the role, but is not thought to have taken it any further. Other corporate heavyweights to have ruled themselves out of the process include former Marks & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose, as well as Helen Alexander and Dame Marjorie Scardino. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will go ahead on 27 and 28 January, with an appointment due to follow in the spring. The new BBC Trust chair will be appointed on a four-year term with an annual salary of one hundred and ten thousand pounds for a three-to-four day working week.

Former Have I Got News For You host Angus Deayton will reportedly return to Radio 4 next year for a new radio comedy series. Deayton will front six-part series, It's Your Round, in which guests such as Miles Jupp, Arthur Smith and Rebecca Front invent their own rounds for the show, reports the Gruniad. The programme, which will premiere on 17 February, marks Deayton's first comedy series on Radio 4 since the award-winning Radio Active in the 1980s. After Radio Active transferred to BBC2 as KYTV, Deayton took on various television roles, including a regular part in One Foot In the Grave. He was also the long-running host of current affairs panel show Have I Got News For You, but left the programme in 2002 after tabloid allegations about his private life made his role as the show's host uncomfortable. Deayton returned to the BBC in 2003 to guest star as a spin-doctor in an episode of political comedy Absolute Power, followed by a role in sitcom Nighty Night from 2004 and regular presentation duties on the annual Before They Were Famous. Next year, Radio 4 will offer more comedy programming to its listeners, including a new podcast titled Comedy of the Week: Mondays Don't Have to be Miserable. The station will also air an improvisation show called Showstopper! The Improvised Musical, starring Pippa Evans, Ruth Bratt, Sean McCann and others.

Eliza Dushku has reportedly pulled out of her role in the TNT pilot Bird Dog. The show focuses on a young police officer who is estranged from her father, a cop in the NYPD. Last week, reports suggested that Dushku had signed on for the role of the daughter. However, Deadline claims that the former Dollhouse star pulled out of the project over the weekend.

Ofcom has criticised Channel Four over a programme showcasing athletes due to compete at the London 2012 Paralympic Games which breached sponsorship regulations. Earlier in the year, Four was awarded exclusive UK broadcast rights to the Paralympic Games. The broadcaster intends to show more than one hundred and fifty hours of television coverage of the event in 2012. Broadcast on Channel Four's main network on 29 August, Inside Incredible Athletes profiled several Paralympic hopefuls as they prepared for the big event in two years time. Ofcom noted that the programme carried sponsorship credits and idents for BT and Sainsbury's, who are both official sponsors of Channel Four's Paralympic coverage. However, the media regulator challenged Channel Four over the two sponsors' direct relationship to the programme, as broadcasting code Rule 9.7 stipulates that 'he relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored channel or programme must be transparent.' The watchdog also cited Rule 9.6, which says that 'sponsorship must be clearly identified as such by reference to the name and/or the logo of the sponsor.' In response, Channel Four attempted to argue that Inside Incredible Athletes was part of its pre-Games coverage and therefore BT and Sainsbury's were cleared as sponsors. The broadcaster refused to accept that there would be 'viewer confusion about the relationship between the sponsor and the sponsored programme, especially in the light of the unprecedented publicity about Channel Four becoming the Paralympics broadcaster and the extensive pre-Games coverage it plans.' Ofcom accepted that it was made 'sufficiently clear' that BT and Sainsbury's were the lead sponsors of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. However, the regulator ruled that Four 'made no reference to the sponsorship arrangement between BT/Sainsbury's and the programme Inside Incredible Athletes,' and so was in breach of Rules 9.6 and 9.7 in the broadcasting code.

A Deal Or No Deal contestant has denied allegations that she is a 'secret' porn star. How secret any secret porn star can possibly be given the nature of, you know, porn, is open to debate, of course. Jeanette Burton - who is currently taking part in the teatime Channel Four game show under the name Jen - reportedly sells hardcore videos of herself performing sex acts via her own subscription site, according to the Sun. A 'source' allegedly said: 'No-one could believe it when she turned up on the show dressed very demurely in a blouse and tank top, smiling with Noel [Edmonds]. She has racked up quite a following online but she doesn't seem quite so keen to share it with the TV viewers.' Burton has denied that she takes part in X-rated online movies, and later suggested that the clips consist of private footage taken from a stolen laptop. 'I know nothing about this site,' the thirty seven-year-old added. 'I have nothing to do with this.' In 2007, another Deal Or No Deal contestant Jane Kershaw admitted to starring in a topless adult movie with her daughter Kelly. Not that there's anything illegal about that, of course. Or, indeed, about what Ms Burton may, or may not, get up to in the privacy of her own home. Just to make that clear, just in case any dear blog readers are feeling like getting all moralistic and hoity-toity about such matters. Like, so, the Sun.

Channel Five has been making profit for its new owner Northern & Shell since September according to chief executive officer Richard Desmond. In his first interview since acquiring the broadcaster, with business magazine Management Today, Desmond revealed Five began to generate profits just four weeks after he bought it from RTL Group in late July following his move to strip out costs of thirty four million quid. Savings have been made via staff and programming costs, along with general overheads, as Desmond has battled to return Five to profitability. A growth in advert revenues have also helped improve the channel's finances, he added. 'The station has revenues of two hundred and seventy million pounds and was losing thirty four million. We've taken exactly the same figure, thirty four million, of costs out. We've saved ten million on staff - some of the directors were heavily paid and getting high bonuses even though it was making a loss,' said Desmond. 'We cut fourteen million off one programme alone - we said this is the price we're paying and that's it - and ten million came from cutting general overheads. Furthermore we will have increased advertising income by eighty million, so our total revenues will be three hundred and fifty million.' Desmond added one senior executive was running up large expense costs, which have subsequently been curbed. 'One of the senior executives - I'd better not say who - employed a cab driver full-time at a cost of fifty thousand pounds a year plus Sky subscription and medical insurance,' he said. Five has made money for Northern & Shell for the past three months according to Desmond who will be hoping to extend the run of profitability into 2011. 'It's lost each year for the last fifteen years. It cost RTL six hundred and fifty million pounds in losses and over one billion pounds in total because RTL bought out the minority shareholders, United (News & Media) and Pearson,' said Desmond. 'We bought it at the end of July. Through September, October and into November we're already making an operating profit.' Albeit, heating costs have gone up since they sacked the hot-air spouting Ian Wright from Live From Studio Five.

And, finally, here's yer Keith Telly Topping's 45 of the Day. Today, for anybody feeling like breakin' out of this city, let's have a little bit of Canvey Island's finest.If you've got a rod, ladies and gentlemen, then yer Keith Telly Topping advises that you make sure it's a hot rod. 'I'm sure I must be someone/Now I'm gonna find out who!'

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A Necessary Disclaimer

This blog contains occasional outbursts of adult language (about what a right shite state of affairs occur in the world today, mostly) and some (very minor) adult themes every now and then. So, if you're not seventeen years old yet, dear blog reader, then please do yer actual Keith Telly Topping a favour. Naff off and come back when you're a bit older. Thanks muchly.

Disclaimer (A Slight Return)

All of the opinions expressed within this blog - unless specifically indicated otherwise - are Keith Telly Topping's own. They should not, in any way, be thought of as reflecting (either collectively or individually) the views of any of the various media organisations, broadcasters, publishing companies or periodicals for which he has freelanced in the past, or may be employed by in the future. Or, indeed, anyone else other than yer actual Keith Telly Topping his very self.

My opinions, my political and spiritual beliefs, the choice of which TV shows I like and dislike, which newspapers and books I chose to read and, indeed, which football team I have the misfortune to support are my own and expression of them is my right within a free and democratic society. (Which, for all of Britain's faults in other areas in 2016, it just about still is.) If you disagree with any of the opinions expressed here, then please feel free to start your own blog and say whatever is on your mind to your own dear blog readers. That is, after all, what blogs are for.

This blogger encourages everyone to use those freedoms - which many brave men and women have struggled, suffered and died to attain and then maintain over the years - to express your opinions upon whatever subjects you desire and whenever you see fit in a public forum. Within - of course - the boundaries of the law as it currently stands.

Please remember there are, sadly, many parts of the world where citizens do not have similar liberties and who would probably love the opportunity to enjoy some of the freedoms that we in the West, all too often it would seem, take for granted.

Or, To Put It Another Way ...

This PARTICULARLY applies to the contents of this blog.

It's Not Where You're From, It's Where You're At!

A Brief Word Of Necessary Explanation

Copyright - An Important Notice

During 2015, this blogger received three separate "take-down" notices from blogger.com regarding individual pages of From The North relating to - alleged - copyright material posted on this blog. All of which were compiled with despite an extremely unhelpful attitude from those making the requests in telling Keith Telly Topping exactly *what* they - or, specifically, a third party - wished him to remove from the page(s) in question. Therefore, please note, From The North is a non-profit making blog compiled by Keith Telly Topping in his spare time. Almost all of the images used on this blog to illustrate a particular story come via Google Images. No attempt is made to infringe on anyones copyright - and the same goes to any links provided to You Tube. I am perfectly happy to remove any links or images from any particular page which are copyrighted (within reason, of course), but it would greatly help if I knew which one (or ones) are at issue. If you are a copyright holder and you believe that something has been posted on From The North which shouldn't be, please contact this blogger directly via the comments section.

All Are Welcome, Yes Indeed

Who He Is & How He Came To Be

A full-time survivor, dandy highwayman, bon vivant, self-unemployed author, journalist and broadcaster Keith Telly Topping's bibliography includes over forty books on mainly pop culture subjects. He was the co-editor of two editions of The Guinness Book of Classic British TV and has written or co-written volumes on television series as diverse as The X-Files, Star Trek, The Avengers, 24, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, Charmed, The Sweeney and Stargate SG-1 as well as music, film and literary critique. He authored four Doctor Who novels (including the award-winning The Hollow Men, with Martin Day) and a novella. His work includes two editions of the acclaimed The West Wing programme guide Inside Bartlet’s White House, A Vault Of Horror: A Book Of Eighty Great (and not-so-great) British Horror Movies, Do You Want To Know A Secret?: A Fab Anthology of Beatles Facts and Doctor Who: The Discontinuity Guide. He was a regular contributor to numerous TV and genre magazines and was a former Contributing Editor to DreamWatch. He is widely considered to be one of Britain's foremost experts on the bewildering complexities of US network television. No, he hasn't the faintest idea why either.

Notoriously suave, articulate and a right wow with the ladies (allegedly), Keith Telly Topping was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne on the very day that his beloved (though even then unsellable) United lost 3-2 at home to Northampton Town. Things haven't improved much since. He was the presenter of the monthly The Book Club (2006-08) and the daily Keith Telly Topping & His Top TV Tips preview slot on BBC Newcastle (2005-2012). He contributed to the BBC television series I ♥ the 70s, Call The Cops and The Perfect Detective and has also written for Sounds, the Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times Culture Supplement, Radio Times, TV Zone, The Doctor Who Magazine and many other publications and periodicals.

Keith Telly Topping writes, and occasionally performs stand-up, and has written radio comedy, co-wrote the stage musical Monopolise! (performed at the 2011 Edinburgh Comedy Festival with Alfie Joey and Mark Deeks) and two TV pilots both of which are, currently, stuck in 'Development Hell.' A failed pop star at the age of fourteen as bass guitarist in (the never-legendary) Slime, Keith Telly Topping lives, works and occasionally sleeps on Tyneside. His interests include foreign travel, listening to bowel-shatteringly loud pop music, socialising with friends, eating in nice Chinese restaurants, watching football and cricket, reading, tacky British horror movies of the 1960s and 70s, military, political and social history and lots of other malarkey and shenanigans too numerous to list.

Keith Telly Topping still dines out on the tale of how he and three friends once - accidentally - stalked George Harrison down the entire length of Oxford Street. True story.

yer actual keith telly topping

THIS Is What You're Up Against

Nobody's Perfect

咖喱米飯和晶片

The Internet Is Responsible For All Of The EVIL In The World. Apparently

Has Anyone Else Noticed That The World Appears To Have Gone To Shit Since David Bowie Died?

The two things are, surely, connected?

Still, Life Has Its Upside

Sometimes. But, only if you think hard enough about it.

Docotr Who Fandom Explained

Available Again - Something This Blogger Has Written Which He's Actually Quite Proud Of

Keith Topping & Martin Day's award-winning 1998 Doctor Who novel The Hollow Men has been reissued by Random House as a kindle download. It can be yours, dear blog reader, for just three English pounds and thirty two pence from Amazon.

Available Again - Something Else This Blogger Co-Wrote Which He's Actually Extremely Proud Of

Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping's award-winning Doctor Who: The Discontinuity Guide is now available in a kindle edition

Other Links

Keith Telly Topping's World Cup Trivia Page

http://worldcuptrivia.blogspot.com/

Monopolise!

The Telly Topping Family Crest

Motto: Veniat Ad Me, Si Putas Te Firmiores Irascibilem

Comments

Comments are always welcome - spam is most definitely not. However, no comments will be accepted from that well known regular attempted contributor 'Anonymous'. If you've got something which you think is worth saying, then I'm sure we'd all like to read it. But, at least have the good grace to put your name to it.

Also, this blog operates a zero tolerance policy towards rude arseholes, racists, homophobes and crass bullies. If you want to indulge in those sort of things then you can go somewhere else and do it (though it'd probably be preferable for everyone if you didn't). Be advised, however, that you are not any getting space on my blog to spread your repulsive views.

mission statement - part I

From The North is actively committed to working for a brighter future for Great Britain through the promotion of junk culture telly and loud pop music among young people.

mission statement - part II

This is, of course, an equal-opportunities blog. We treat them ALL with the same level of complete and utter contempt that they so richly deserve. As Billy Connolly once said, 'don't vote for them, it only encourages them.'

mission statement - part III

It's a truism but, in life, one tends never to fully appreciate the good things that one has until they are gone. Just a thought

appreciate what you've got while you've got it

The BBC is, of course, a British institution and national treasure. It is also - much more importantly - a World Class broadcaster with a global reputation for journalistic honesty, integrity, balance, innovation, creativity and quality. Ironically the only places in the world where it isn't highly regarded are in knobcheese fascist dictatorships like Iran and China and in its own backyard where scum politicians and lice newspapers with an agenda use it as their own personal punch-bag. This is WRONG. This blog supports the BBC and believes that it is high time the people of this country - to whom, after all, the BBC *belongs* - stand up for themselves and remind such crass, ignorant bullies that the BBC is better than all of them put together

reasons to be alive in 2017

No. 1: The third Peter Capaldi series of Doctor Who

can't find anything worth watching on TV tonight?

Then why not open your Complete West Wing DVD box-set and watch a couple of episodes in bed with a box of Maltesers®™ and a nice hot cup of milky cocoa? The world will, yer Keith Telly Topping respectfully suggests, look a whole hell of a lot better after a trip inside Bartlet's White House

whom yer actual Keith Telly Topping does NOT work for

Militant Agnosticism Or Understandable Indecisiveness?

I would really appreciate it if any postings made by myself on this blog are not reposted elsewhere without my permission. Which will almost certainly be given but I'd like you to at least do me the courtesy of asking first. Thank you for your kind consideration in this regard.